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Contents contributed and discussions participated by Rachael Webster

Rachael Webster

SMART Exchange - USA - Search lessons by keyword - 0 views

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    This site has numerous whiteboard activities which one can download varying for grade level and content area. I particularly liked that before downloading, you can view previews of the content. It seemed to have a lot of games, which may be a little too juvenile for older students, but some can be incorporated. I particularly liked the Jeopardy! game template, as I feel that is applicable across grade levels and is fun for the class to participate in. The fact that you can customize these for whatever you are teaching is great, so I think this site should be really reviewed across disciplines, as you can use things listed as Language Arts in other disciplines and vice versa.
Rachael Webster

Interactive Whiteboard Resources: Literacy, Key Stage 4 - Topmarks Education - 1 views

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    This resource has a number of whiteboard activities for different areas of study. I focused on the English (Literacy) section. It seems somewhat limited in some respects, as it only has a few activities for certain books/plays, but the ones that were there were pretty cool. I really liked the Romeo and Juliet activities. I thought the intro scale about love at first sight would be a great way to get kids hooked, and the activities in which the kids put the things that happened in order were good as well. I liked some of the middle grades activities more. There was one in which you have to look at different newspapers coverage of the same event and make a Venn diagram of how the stories overlap. I think this really makes learning more interactive and meaningful to the students and utilizes the technology well.
Rachael Webster

22frames.com - Search and find captioned / subtitled videos from across the web - 2 views

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    I think this site is pretty awesome even for hearing students. I know that when I watch something with words along the bottom, I automatically read what is along the bottom no matter what. Things that have tickers across the bottom, like CNN or (what I'm more likely watching, shamefully) E!, I get super distracted, which is frustrating. But having the words that are actually being spoken, kids may become better readers and also better absorb what is being presented to them. Reading along also makes watching a video a less passive activity.
Rachael Webster

Why Are Finland's Schools Successful? | People & Places | Smithsonian Magazine - 2 views

  • “We are not much interested in PISA. It’s not what we are about.”
    • Rachael Webster
       
      I wonder if they would be saying the same thing if they were at the bottom, though. It's easy to say you don't care about test scores when your test scores are through the roof. If you're at the bottom of the pack and saying you don't care about test scores, then people say "Well, obviously. That's why they are doing so poorly."
    • Rachael Webster
       
      I understand and agree with the fact that they put the focus on learning as opposed to testing. However, they still take the tests. If they were truly not concerned about the tests, they could just opt not to take them, right? If the US said that we were focused on the holistic learning process and not on tests, would anyone put any value in that statement considering our test performance?
  • Teachers in Finland spend fewer hours at school each day and spend less time in classrooms than American teachers.
    • Rachael Webster
       
      Interesting. In our curriculum class last night, China was being praised for how much more time is spent in the classroom (praised in a video clip).
  • Finland provides three years of maternity leave and subsidized day care to parents, and preschool for all 5-year-olds, where the emphasis is on play and socializing. In addition, the state subsidizes parents, paying them around 150 euros per month for every child until he or she turns 17.
    • Rachael Webster
       
      Sorry, I know I'm going a little crazy here with the commenting, but man. I sure wish the US had social policies like this.
    • Rachael Webster
       
      Well, I was more focused on the maternity leave. Not that I'd turn down $150/month for my kid, but the real issue is how far behind the rest of the world the US is when it comes to maternity leave and valuing the family.
Rachael Webster

Why Are Finland's Schools Successful? | People & Places | Smithsonian Magazine - 0 views

  • “Children from wealthy families with lots of education can be taught by stupid teachers,” Louhivuori said, smiling. “We try to catch the weak students. It’s deep in our thinking.”
    • Rachael Webster
       
      While I don't relish the idea of anyone having a stupid teacher, I certainly do applaud the acknowledgement that the weakest students need the strongest teachers. We need teachers who view working with the least priviledged students as the primo jobs and jobs working with kids who already have everything as something that you'd take if you had to. If you want to be rewarded for your job, isn't seeing a kid go from the bottom up a lot more rewarding than seeing a kid who has everything inch up a little higher in his already awesome educational career? I sound like I don't think wealthier students deserve good teachers, and that's not what I mean. I'm just saying that the toughest jobs are the ones we should be the proudest and most excited to do.
  • If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect.”
    • Rachael Webster
       
      YES
Rachael Webster

Edupunk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 1 views

  • Reaction against commercialization of learning
    • Rachael Webster
       
      I like that this is essentially a movement away from managed curriculum and toward constant differentiation. Between this and "do it yourself," the attitude of "hey, if this doesn't work, we will do whatever we need to in order to find something that does" permeates and I love that.
Rachael Webster

Games and Rules : 2¢ Worth - 0 views

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    I liked this piece because it reminded me of a conversation I had in another class this week. Another person in the class was asking how we can prepare our kids for technology in the future that we have no idea will exist as of right now. The example given was how nobody knew iPads would exist a few years ago and now tablets are the big thing. My thoughts are that if we make sure our students are well-versed in the technology that we have right now, future technology builds on that and becomes intuitive. It wasn't hard for me to go from Pac-Man to Zelda, or from Zelda to Doom. Each built on skills that I already had. When I got my iPad as a gift, I had no idea what the purpose of it was; now I can't live without it. It wasn't hard for me to learn at all because it built on the skills I already had. I think this article says all of that, albeit in a much simpler way.
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